July 5, 2007 — Catilin, a biodiesel production company, has raised $3 million in Series A financing led by MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures, an early-stage Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm. The funds will be used to build out a pilot production facility, continue groundbreaking research, and build the Catilin team.

Catilin has developed a process for biofuels production that promises to greatly reduce the cost of biodiesel, and to make biodiesel cost competitive with diesel without government subsidies. The company claims that its nanotechnology process allows biodiesel producers to get maximum profit from a broad range of feedstocks using fewer processing steps, which leads to lower overall costs, and greatly reduces water consumption and environmental contaminants. The process works with existing biodiesel production facilities.

The technology was developed by Iowa State University chemistry professor, and U.S. DOE Ames Laboratory senior scientist Victor Lin. The company will use the Biomass Energy Conversion Center facility (BECON) at Iowa State for its pilot biodiesel production.